Usually a daily account of a pet-sitter's life, taking care of various pets in various houses. Also contains commentaries on local Colorado wildlife, weather, local happenings, and national/international animal events - and my occasional trips and travels. Since October 2016, political and historical comments...

About Me

I'm a Navy brat and spent my school years in Florida, and my summers on Chincoteague Island, running wild with the ponies. I have always loved animals and have always been closer to them than to other people. I live in Boulder, Colorado with two cats.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

I really think what is published or shared as news is not news at all - that's why I choose to write a blog; it's my opinion, and it only matters to me - but I enjoy sharing it. These are 10 "headlines" from my news page, and my reactions when I read them. And please keep in mind that I'm an out-of-the-mainstream-loop 60 year old who is considered by many to be a bleeding-heart liberal Democrat. (I just consider myself a 60-year-old Democrat female curmudgeon.)

1. This Is What Happened to All the Important People in O J Simpson's Life (Los Angeles Times) - Who cares? Simpson is in prison, now a convicted felon. I never knew him personally, although I did enjoy his commercials showing him running through an airport. But all of that is old, old stuff...
2. Millennials Are Obsessed With Side Hustles Because They're All We've Got (Quartz) - I recognize the word hustle as either a con-game or a dance. What the heck is a side hustle? And it seems to me that most millennials are spoiled rotten youngsters who have always received anything they wanted. I started working at a paying job at the age of 13 to get spending money.
3. A Strange, Low-Pitched Sound Is Coming From the Caribbean Sea (Science Alert) - Maybe whatever has been swallowing things from deep below the Earth's crust is getting indigestion. We'll soon awaken to find all the missing boats and aircraft from the Bermuda Triangle have been regurgitated along with their crews - welcome to the future!
4. No, Bikini Waxing Doesn't Make You Cleaner or Healthier (Yahoo Health) - Ummmm. Where did this come from? With whom does one discuss bikini waxing? One's gynecologist?
5. Real Rock of a Diamond Fails to Sell at Auction ( New York Times) - A giant piece of compressed carbon doesn't make it's selling price reserve. Someone is very greedy. I don't like diamonds, anyway.
6. The Ku Klux Klan Dreams of Rising Again 150 Years After It's Founding (ABC News) - News stories like this exacerbate racial distrust. I grew up in the southern United States; the KKK exists; Neo-Nazis exist; redneck crackers exist; snobby high-brow Yankees exist; but the vast majority of people are just scraping by, doing all they can to exist and get "wanted items" for their children. The whole world needs to step away from hate.

7. Iggy Azalea Says She Caught Nick Young Cheating on Her as Rumors Swirl That He Impregnated Keonna Green (E! Online) - Seriously?!? Who the heck are these people and why should I care?
8. It's Unclear Whether Yearly Pelvic Examinations Are Necessary, Task Force Says (Today.com) - Who headed up this "Task Force?" What type of information were they trying to get? I haven't had a pelvic since my docs removed all my female parts and left me with a sock-toe vagina....

9. Mike Shanahan and Pete Coors to Host Fund Raiser For Trump (Denver Post) - Oh, crap. Football and Colorado beer get together to beg for dollars for the Cro-Magnon comb-over...

10. Did Tim Tebow's Prayers Rescue an Unresponsive Airplane Passenger? (Lifesite) - If you know me, you know I like Tim Tebow. I am not at all surprised that he left his first-class seat and went to the back of the plane to pray with a woman whose husband was having a heart attack during the flight. I'm not at all surprised that after the plane landed, he helped the wife get her bags and took her to the hospital. He's a giving, caring, honest and earnest young man. He was raised to espouse his Christian beliefs. But saying, or implying, thatTim's prayers can rescue or save someone is a big step over the line. I believe he's a very good man - but not a Saint.

Manitou Springs, Colorado was established in 1872 as "a scenic health resort." It has 12 natural mineral springs,and one can take a self-guided walking tour and sample the water from all of the springs, free of charge. Manitou Springs now consists of three square miles, and has a beautiful Victorian-era downtown, where no "chain stores" exist. The only two authorized medical marijuana stores in El Paso County are found here. So, too, are the Manitou cliff dwellings, which were built in the early 1900s to look like the Mesa Verde Anasazi housing. And the Incline is also here: it was once a narrow gauge funicular railway bed, but is now a staircase that ascends over 2,000 feet in about a mile, with some grades as steep as 68%...

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

We visited Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory Saturday - all their different kinds of tea leaves are kept in one room; all peppermint leaves in another, and all spearmint leaves in a third; Talk about heady fragrances! They were milling lemon grass when we went through - nice lemony scent.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

I'm at the end of my "preaching" or "informing" or "grand-standing" about our Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. It was passed into law on 15 December 1791. It states: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
I support the ownership and use of firearms. As I stated before, I do not own one, myself. Many of my relatives and friends own and use their guns - and I'm happy to support their right and legal freedom to do so. All of my friends who own firearms have a locked and safe storage area for their guns and ammunition. They practice shooting at ranges and in competitions. They hunt wildlife for their tables - they don't go out and shoot a deer or elk for trophy antlers - they preserve and eat the bounty of the beast's body. I have eaten deer, elk, rabbit, alligator, and turtle meat, along with other livestock bred for the table. A lot of residents of Alaska are subsistence hunters, and the only meat they eat is the wildlife they kill and process themselves.
In the last 72 hours, three headlines caught my attention - all three dealing with gun violence. In Fort Worth, Texas, at an unauthorized party at a nonprofit "Safe Place" dance studio, there was a gang related shooting, according to police investigators. Two people died and at least five more were injured. Also in Texas, in the city of Katy, a mother shot and killed her two daughters, aged 22 and 17, in the street outside their home. When police arrived, the woman refused to put her gun down. An officer had to shoot her. That made three dead in a family. And, finally, in East Orange, New Jersey, a 6-year-old boy found his mother's loaded pistol. He was playing with it and shot his 4-year-old brother in the head. The 6-year-old is now a killer.
I believe that gun laws need to be reformed and re-stated. When the Constitution was written, and the Second Amendment passed, the 6-pound cannon and the flintlock black powder rifle were most efficient weapons of the time.
I believe that normal citizens of the United States should be allowed to purchase a pistol or revolver, a rifle or a shotgun. But I also believe that semi-automatic and automatic firing systems for these weapons should not be allowed - except for the use by SWAT teams and our military personnel.
I don't believe that a box magazine that will hold more than ten cartridges should be sold to the average, every-day United States citizen. I think that a person who purchases a gun in the United States should have to pass a background check and a psychological test. Every gun owner should have to pass a knowledge and safety test. I also believe that it should be the law in every state that arms should be kept in locked safe boxes, except when traveling to or from the shooting range, or on the way to a hunt.
You don't need an AK-47 to hunt for a deer. You don't need a 30 to 50 cartridge magazine to put dinner on the table. If you need either for the purpose I stated, then you shouldn't be allowed to shoot or own a weapon.
I can see that in certain shooting competitions, one might want a large magazine to pursue some "fancy shooting" of targets. I believe that the law should make sure that only accredited gun competitions would be allowed to have large box magazines - for competition only. - Of course, I would want to allow our Armed Forces and Law Enforcement officers to use their discretion for their specific needs.
Are these things too much to ask for in a so-called civilized society? I think not.